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Starmaya “seeds.” CIRAD photo.

Describing it as a “godsend” and a “minor revolution for the industry,” the nonprofit agricultural research and development organization CIRAD says it has developed the first F1 hybrid coffee seeds (beans) that could be used for widespread commercial cultivation.

The group said the production cost of the seeds is half as much as what’s required to produce the Starmaya F1 hybrid variety through existing in vitro methods.

Star-Maya

Starmaya growing at ECOM’s La Cumplida farm in Nicaragua. File photo courtesy of World Coffee Research.

“The production potential for the Starmaya variety is around half a million seeds per hectare planted,” CIRAD’s Benoît Bertrand said in an announcement of the development this month.

The group suggested the development of seed production of the Starmaya F1 variety — which has been in concert with Ecom Agroindustrial Corp — could ultimately make a high-quality, high-yielding,…



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